This is a high-resolution digital download of Plate 4249 from Curtis's Botanical Magazine. The original illustration was hand-colored in the 1800s. This listing includes both the botanical image and its accompanying description tab.

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TAB. 4249.

TORENIA ASIATICA. Large-flowered Torenia.

Nat. Ord. SCROPHULARINEE.-DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA.

Generic Character (Vide supra, TAB. 4229.)

TORENIA Asiatica; diffusa glabra v. tenuiter hirtella scabrella, foliis petiolatis ovatis v. ovato-lanceolatis tenui-acuminatis, serrato-crenatis, calycibus elon- gatis basi acutis costis 5 subæqualibus v. 3 anguste alatis, corolla calyce plus duplo longiore, filamentorum anticorum appendicula subulata. TORENIA Asiatica. Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 862. Spreng. Syst. Veget. v. 2. p. 800. Lam. Ill. t. 523. f. 1. Wight. Ic. Pl. Ind. Or. t. 862. Benth. in De Cand. Prodr. v. 10. p. 410. Wall. Cat. n. 3953. TORENIA vagans. Roxb. Fl. Ind. v. 3. p. 96. TORENIA hians. Roxb. l. c. penninerved, glabrous, as is every part of our plant, but rough to the touch. Peduncles axillary, fasciculate, spreading, angled, single-flowered. Calyx ovato-acuminate, two-lipped, arched or decurved, with three wings which are decurved on the petiole. Corolla large, more than twice as long as the calyx; the tube dark purple, between campanulate and infundibuliform, with a spreading, nearly equal, four-lobed limb, of a delicate purple blue, pale, with a blotch on three of the lobes. Two longer stamens with a subulate spur. Stigma two-lipped. Ovary oblong. Ovary oblong. Style geniculated.

Figures

Fig. 1. Corolla laid open. 2. Pistil and winged apex of the peduncle :- magnified. Thrifty Whiskers It is not by any means easy for a painter to do justice to the rich purple-blue tinge of the flowers of this plant, which, with the size of the blossoms, the three dark purple blotches on the pale ground, together with the delicate yellow green of the rather copious foliage, renders this one of the most lovely plants that has lately been introduced to our stove-collections. It is an annual, and we are indebted for the seeds to W. Strachan, Esq., Twickenham, who received them from Curtallam. The plants blossomed through the summer of 1846, and as the cuttings strike freely, we find ourselves readily able to propagate the species should the parent plants fail to bear seeds. Even amidst the splendid display of vegetable productions exhibited at the June show of the Chiswick Gardens, this attracted no small degree of public attention. It seems to have a very extensive range in the East Indies, growing throughout Bengal, in Amboyna, Ceylon, Mergui, Chittagong, Sylhet, in the Madras Peninsula, and, Dr. Wight adds, it is widely diffused in alpine regions.

Botanical Description An annual, with quadrangular, pale green stems,

flexuous, erect or diffuse, branched, the branches opposite. Leaves opposite, on short petioles, ovate, or ovato-lanceolate, much acu- minate, coarsely serrated, obtuse, scarcely cordate at the base, AUGUST 1ST, 1846.